The School Climate for Arts Educators

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Giving Compass’ Take:

• Argy Nestor, writing for Americans for the Arts, explains how arts educators are ensuring quality education for all students. Particularly, the ones that are struggling due to hardships outside of school.

• How does arts education support students in a different way? Is there funding for arts educators in your local school systems?

Summer is coming to an end and schools across the country once again are opening their doors and welcoming learners of all ages. The education systems of 2019 are shifting to meet the needs of these learners, and this is an ongoing and huge challenge for school leaders. Some students aren’t returning to a traditional school, while others never stopped their learning when the last school year was “officially” over. Fortunately, we have excellent educators across the country leading with innovative ideas to tackle aspects of these differences. As a veteran arts educator of 43 years, this blog is a reflection of what is circling around in my head.

Educators are using research and data to determine what is best for individual students. And the best educators are listening carefully to their students to address the needs. Outstanding schools are making student-centered learning the heart of the curriculum. What does that mean? Listening to and observing students while they are learning provides an enormous amount of information towards an excellent education. Designing ways to empower students so they can articulate their learning and lead. The role of the teacher has shifted—it is critical to step back and “guide from the side.”

So much of what takes place in the arts classroom is about the process of learning: experimenting with materials, asking questions, wondering, researching ideas, sketching, and creating. The process of assessment for the student is built into the process of creating. The teacher’s role is certainly to view the product and listen to the final performance, but more importantly it is to observe throughout the process, ask reflective questions, and help guide the student’s process. This is formative assessment and takes place throughout (Assessment for Learning).

You might be wondering, how does this impact arts education? We can no longer accept that educators will teach only those “ready” or “interested” or the “talented.” We need to teach ALL STUDENTS. If we don’t accept this responsibility, this will cost all of us later. If an individual comes to school troubled, it impacts not only their learning, but the students around them as well. Every young person deserves access to a quality education.

Arts educators understand and confront these challenges. In fact, many arts educators approach teaching differently than teachers of other content areas.

Giving Compass' Take:
• In this post, Createquity gives recommendations for foundations, government agencies, individual philanthropists, and others providing resources to support the arts.
• A major takeaway from the advice given here is not to look put your name on a building, but instead seek knowledge: Funding arts-related research can go a long way in developing this sector.
• Here are five more lessons in disrupting arts philanthropy.
For the past three years and change, Createquity’s mission has been to research “the most important issues in the arts and what we can do about them.” During that time, in networking meetings with potential donors or friends of the organization, I would often get questions along the lines of, “so what are the most important issues in the arts?” Createquity’s approach involved deeply investigating a wide range of potential issues before coming to firm conclusions about which ones might be most deserving of our attention, or what kinds of actions we might want to advocate for. Now, however, with Createquity having announced its intention to cease operations at the end of 2017, the time has come to share what we do know – even if there are still significant gaps in that knowledge – and what we think it means for those trying to improve people’s lives through the arts.
People are fond of calling for more leadership in the arts sector. But the thing about an ecosystem is that it is fundamentally leaderless. Which means that we all have to be leaders if any leadership is going to happen. And to me, in the context of grantmaking, that means all of us taking the time to thoroughly understand the arts funding landscape before deciding what role is most appropriate for us to play.

Looking for a way to get involved?

If you are looking for opportunities to learn and connect with others interested in the topic of Arts and Culture, take a look at these events, galas, conferences and volunteering opportunities aggregated by Giving Compass.